The South Platte River stretches into neighboring fields and roads Monday afternoon southwest of Greeley. As water levels receded on Monday, emergency responders began to assess damage in some areas. Crews won't be able to fully assess damage until Wednesday when water levels are expected to return to normal.

A couple walks through the water at Eastwood Mobile Home Park on Monday in Evans after collecting some items from their home. Many families were able to visit their homes Monday as the water levels receded.

A map of the road closures as of Monday night in Weld County.
For up-to-date information about road closures and for information near your property, go to www.co.weld.co.us/Departments/OEM/WeldCounty2013FloodMap.html.

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The floating mobile homes, washed out highways and submerged cars that embodied the devastating portrait of Weld County’s floods over the weekend were put into numbers on Monday, with Weld County commissioners estimating at least $230 million in damages to properties and infrastructure countywide.

“That’s just the preliminary number,” said Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway at a briefing with Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper on Monday afternoon.

As waters continued to recede throughout the day and roads gradually reopened, emergency officials began to transition out of “emergency” mode and into “recovery” mode, sending out 10 crews to do preliminary damage assessments.

County officials estimate more than 7,000 parcels of land were impacted by floodwaters, 2,900 of them residential. Another 2,300 are agricultural parcels, said Jennifer Finch, spokeswoman for Weld County commissioners. She said 355 commercial and 62 industrial properties were also damaged.

A total of 140 roads in the county were closed at some point, with 654 lane miles of Weld’s roadways impacted by the flood. That doesn’t count the damage done to some state corridors, namely the section of U.S. 34 midway between Greeley and Kersey that was literally dissolved by the flood.

Sixty-four irrigation canals were damaged in the flood, Finch said.

The Poudre River hovered around 7 feet high on Monday, with Greeley officials suggesting a voluntary evacuation along the river until those levels drop over the next few days. After peaking at nearly 19 feet on Friday night, the South Platte River is expected to rise to 17 feet on Monday night and then steadily drop to normal levels, according to the National Weather Service.

Roy Rudisill, emergency operations manager for Weld County, said the county would probably have to wait until Wednesday to wholly assess the damage, especially in the hard-hit areas of east Greeley, Evans and Milliken.

Commissioners told Hickenlooper their biggest concern at this point is where those displaced from the flood will stay during the coming weeks and months they don’t have a home.

With a vacancy rate of less than 1.5 percent in the Greeley area and a similarly tight lodging market, many have nowhere to turn for shelter.

“These are people that are not likely to have flood insurance,” Conway told Hickenlooper. County officials have estimated 400 people were housed at the evacuation centers in Greeley, Milliken, Johnstown, LaSalle, Longmont, Erie, Fort Lupton and Niwot at any given time.

“They are not likely to have any insurance. And they have lost everything,” he said.

Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer suggested the Governor’s Office use funding from the Community Development Block Grant program, which the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced is available to use in counties where there has been a disaster declaration. HUD will also offer foreclosure relief and other assistance in Weld.

Residents and business owners impacted by the flood are eligible for federal aid, but Kirkmeyer said she fears it will take too long for FEMA money to come through.

Roxane White, Hickenlooper’s chief of staff, said the Governor’s Office must first assess the need statewide, but that could be an option.

The county has also experienced a furor of issues with water and wastewater plants due to flooding. In Evans, thousands of residents have been told not to flush their toilets or shower, thanks to damage to the 1st Avenue wastewater plant, prompting Greeley-Evans School District 6 to close schools on Monday. Evans is in the process of placing port a-potties in schools and configuring temporary infrastructure to get some sewage pumped by Greeley’s wastewater plant.

In LaSalle, too, residents have been asked not to run any water down their drains until 5 p.m. on Wednesday because their wastewater system was damaged, and portable toilets were set up in the community center. Left Hand Water District in southwest Weld County can not reach a portion of residents on its system, and Firestone issued a boil order to its residents as a precaution against residuals of chlorine detected in the water.

Rudisill said there are no reports of missing people that have come through any law enforcement agencies in Weld County. He said the Emergency Operations Center has been forwarding calls for inquiries of missing family members and friends to the Red Cross, but Weld is reporting zero unaccounted people.

In the midst of the disarray over the weekend, Rudisill said the county ran out of barricades to keep people from driving down so many endangered roads, and Weld lost three patrol cars doing search and rescue.

First responders received a total of 2,603 calls for service.

In one instance, a family near Kersey was forced to stay in their home Friday night because there was no way for first responders to reach them, Rudisill said.

Weld County Sheriff John Cooke said he’s since had to reorganize his manpower to ensure deputies can get to calls despite the crippling effects the floodwaters have had on roads.

“Our biggest challenge will be getting to the locations we need to be,” Cooke said.

He got a bird’s-eye view of damage in the central part of the county on Monday, thanks to a courtesy flight provided by TYJ Global in Platteville. Cooke said he’s been on the ground in many of the hardest-hit areas, but seeing the devastation from above put things into a different perspective.

“You can be just a few yards away and everything’s fine, and just a few yards another way and everything’s ruined,” Cooke said.